Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev missed the informal CIS summit in St. Petersburg due to a busy work schedule. Aliyev's administration also noted that his absence from the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council on December 21 was due to Azerbaijan not being a member of the organization.
Islam Batsiev was detained in the Dagestan city of Bayramaul. He is suspected of participating in an attack on Pskov paratroopers in Chechnya in 2000 during the Russian-Chechen war.
In February 2000, near the village of Ulus-Kert, Shatoi district, 84 servicemen of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division were killed during the fighting, and four more were injured. The Chechen detachment was commanded by Shamil Basayev and Khattab.
In the near future, Batsiev will be accused of committing crimes under Art. 279, part 2 art. 209, art. 317 (armed rebellion, participation in a gang and encroachment on the life of a serviceman) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
As Memorial human rights activists noted, the same type of testimony from relatives of Russian military personnel is presented in almost all identical criminal cases that were brought against natives of Chechnya on charges of participation in an attack on paratroopers. People repeat the official version or talk about the lives of their relatives before the incriminated events.